Infographic World

Business Insider Infographic: What Makes Portland So Green

Portland Oregon has been named the greenest city in the country. What are they doing that other cities aren’t, and how can everyone else step up their game?

People in Portland breathe easy, with the city ranking in the top 25 for air quality. That’s an impressive number considering that it’s a large metropolitan area. It’s also known to have cleanest water for a large city, a stat it shares with Detroit. Besides pure water and fresh air, there are other aspects that make Portland “super green”.

Interestingly, 8 percent of the city’s population uses bikes instead of cars for their primary means of transportation. Thats a big cut in energy consumption; speaking of which, Portland uses 33% of renewable energy, while the national average lingers around 13%; another impressive number.

Whether or not the rest of the nation will soon catch up is to be seen; what we can learn from Portland is that it doesn’t take much to change our energy footprint, and every effort, regardless as to how large or small, contributes to the cause.